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NOTE OF A MEETING HELD AT 2.45 ON 6 AUGUST 1981
BRITISH NATIONALITY BILL: GIBRALTAR
Present: Home Secretary
Lord Belstead
Mr Addison
Mr Halliday
Sir Ian Gilmour Mr Richard Luce Mr W Jones
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1) Han
WM."
The purpose of the meeting was to enable Home Office and FCO- Ministers to consider further the line to be taken at Report Stage of the British Nationality Bill in the House of Lords towards the amendment affecting Gibraltar which had been moved successfully against the wishes of the Government during Committee Stage.
2. Sir Ian Gilmour said that the FCO's views were very much as set out in his letter of 4 August to the Home Secretary. They did not want British Citizenship for Gibraltar, and wanted all the dependencies to be treated equally. Ideally, the amendment made at Committee should be reversed. If it was not, he wondered whether the existing position for the Falkland Islands could be preserved.
3.
In discussion the following main points were made.
(a)
(b)
(c)
See 360
The Chief Whip in the House of Lords had taken the view that the amendment affecting Gibraltar could not be reversed in the House of Lords. It would be for consideration whether to seek to reverse it and fail would make it easier or harder to preserve the position of the Falkland Islands, which really had to be preserved.
The "Hong Kong lobby" were being restrained while. the Government considered its position, but would become very active if they saw Gibraltar was to secure a privileged position. They would probably press for a concession on nomenclature for citizens of Hong Kong, which the Government would be unable to make, but which could attract wide support.
The Bill as amended in respect of Gibraltar was defective and would have to be amended. Since a "tidying up" amendment introduced in the Commons would make it impossible to invite the Commons to disapprove the Lords amendment, the Home Secretary proposed to table the "tidying up" amendment on Report in the Lords. That meant that the position of Gibraltar was bound to be debatable then, although the issue of principle was unlikely to be raised on such a narrow amendment.
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